Hand Tools

I made and started to use my plywood workbench in 2019. My first Paul Sellers workbench video came together in 2012 and went out in 2013. I think some people saw it as an interim workbench until they could attain the status symbol of something to match their as yet to be established skill levels....

Source

The snow fall dump forecast has increased. It now stands at 18" to 24" with drifting up to 4 feet. Sounds like lots of fun will greet me in the AM. The governor has declared a state of emergency. There is a ban on driving after 1900 today into tomorrow. Fingers and toes double crossed that it won't be as bad as the weather seers are saying.

oh what a relief......

The epoxy has hardened and set up. The color is fantastic. I have used liquid dyes and stains before with epoxy with mixed results. This pigment color is rich and deep. There are zero occlusions and no dead spots in the epoxy. Very happy with how this came out. 

sigh

This pine board is cupped but only on this near end. The other end is dead flat. Why I don't know. I had clamped this end yesterday and it didn't take out the cup. Helped a little but still too much to be usable.

worth a try

I remember watching a japanese woodworking You Tube vid where  he ran a cupped, bowed, and twisted boards over a kerosene heater to straighten out the board. The boards were used to make a 4 drawer dresser with doors. I don't have a kerosene heater but I do have a heart gun. I warmed up the 4-6 inches on this end on all four edges for about 5 minutes. After that I clamped it again. I'll check on it in the AM.

2nd walnut bookshelf

Got the layout done on the 2nd one. Having a lot of squares was helpful with each one set to a specific measurement.

looks good

There is still a gap but I did get the larger part of it plugged. Not sure what to do with small gap. The cherry putty I have is too red to fill it. Hide glue and cherry sawdust sounds like a better choice.

self supporting

Ok with that but having no gap is much better.

hmm......

Tried this and it worked. This is my small saddle square. I used it to ensure that I had the last 1 1/4" (the chisel width) at the end was square. I didn't use it on the rest of the dado. 

first one dry fitted

Two left side back slat mortises were loose on the cheek walls but snug on the top/bottom. The clamps didn't have any issues with fully seating the shelf in the dado leaving the front gap free.

wow and wow again

Not at all what I was expecting. I put the 3/8" blade on the bandsaw and I prayed it would stay sharp for the two cuts I had to make on the bookshelf. It was like a hot knife going through a tub of butter. Smooth, effortless, fluid, and with zero hesitation. I have never made a continuous round cut like this ever on this bandsaw. It didn't bind and easily made the curve all in one stroke. Did I say wow already?  

sneak peek

Eyeballing the cheery shelf against the walnut. Decided against staining it and I'll leave it natural. As this bookshelf ages the cherry will darken and the walnut will lighten another reason to leave the cherry  natural.

caught it

Went to adjust the depth on the router and noticed that the depth stop doohickey was MIA.

got lucky

Found it on the deck covered almost hidden in walnut wood shavings. I bought the depth stop from LN for $10 years ago. Checked their website and the stop now sells for $20.

2nd walnut bookshelf dry fitted

It was looking pretty good that I would get two bookshelves glued and cooking before 1500 roll around.

hmm........

A lot closer to the dado bottom than I would like to be. At least with this one I remembered to saw the angle on the bottom. I think I should be ok with the shelf and the dado, there will be Miller dowels helping out too.

Besseys suck

I rarely use the big Jorgensen bar clamps. I had to because the Bessey wouldn't pull the ends in to fully seat the shelf in the dado. The bar clamp did with with barely a 1/8 of a turn of the handle. The 'J' bar clamps have a large clamping head - bigger than the clamping head on my aluminum bar clamps

hmm......

The glue is bleeding through the saw cut out. Not a lot just a few little beads of glue. I'll clean them up when I take it out of the clamps.

accidental woodworker

 The weather seers ain't giving out good news. Snow starting on sunday with a blizzard on monday. The predicted snowfall for the two days - 12-14 inches. This is the lowest estimate from the three weather stations I checked. I have a plenty of projects on my plate to wait out anything Mother Nature throws at me in my part of the universe.

done

Kind of like this one considering it went south and came back up north.

cooked overnight

No hiccups when I took the clamps off. The headaches come from it moving as you loosen the clamps - not a good sign. Creaking and moaning could go either way. None of those symptoms today.

done

12 Miller dowels, 6 on each end. I will need to buy more cherry dowels, I have enough to do the remaining 3 cherry bookshelves. 

Yikes

Blew out a big chip rasping the cutout. Put a damper on getting this ready for shellac.

small cutout

The important thing is that it isn't rocking. I don't understand why this cutout is so much smaller than the previous ones. 

sigh

When I had clamped this I didn't see a gap on this side. Out of the clamps and the gap was shaking hands with me. Used the cherry in the vise to saw off a shim to fill the gap.

filled

This was the second shim. The first I did had the end grain facing up. This one has the face grain up.

2nd walnut bookshelf

Prepping the  stock for the next walnut bookshelf. Thinned the back slats to 5/8" and planed the four edges smooth.

cherry shelf

I went to Kosezla lumber this morning to check out the black walnut. They only had two 4/4 boards but both were only about 4" wide. There was a lot of 8/4 but I wasn't interested in resawing stock that thick. She told me more walnut was coming next week but I don't want to wait. This bookshelf will be cherry and there is also the possibility that I could stain the cherry walnut.

black pigment

Trying out the black pigment mixed with epoxy. Not sure how this will look. I don't have doubts about it mixing well with the epoxy.

wow

This color is incredible. It is a deep, edge of space, rich black. I filled in the voids/defects in the back slats. fingers crossed on this epoxy setting up because the last time I used it, it didn't harden. I put the two back slats on the furnace to help keep them warm.

accidental woodworker

2025 Wilson Burnham Engelmann Spruce/Wenge double top classical guitar with an elevated fretboard. 

Ebony fretboard, East Indian rosewood bridge with MOP tie block cover, Manuel Ramirez style rosette.

Back and sides are laminated with curly Spanish cedar.

650mm string length

52mm wide at nut, 58mm string spacing at bridge. Please scroll down the page for more photos of this stunning guitar!

Regular price was $8000, price reduced to $4000! I am moving to a new studio and I want to liquidate my current stock of guitars!

For more specifications on this guitar, please click here!

Watch Juri Yun play this guitar! Please visit my YouTube channel, @wilsonburnhamguitars8563

"Wilson's guitars are outstanding! They have incredible voices and are easy to play! They are easy to play because the treble strings are there, they are present and you can hear them above the bass strings! You don't have to work hard to make these guitars sing!"

Nathan Fischer, president of the New York City Classical Guitar Society

The honeycomb Nomex in this double top guitar is cover with a veneer of old growth redwood to enhance the guitar's voice.

The sides are attached to the top with blocks of ebony, these ebony blocks make the guitar louder in sound!

Laminating the wenge back and sides with curly Spanish cedar stiffen the guitar to increase the volume and beauty of the guitar's voice. The sound of this guitar reaches out to the hearts' of your audience to bring them to you and the music you are playing!

One down and five to go on the bookshelves. If I keep up this rate I will whack out one a day woodworking wise. Applying the shellac will take a couple of days. I can see them piling up in the shop as wait to finish them. And it will be something else to find a hole to stick them in. Of the eventual eleven of them, only 3 have been adopted.

Highland Hardwoods haul

I'll start on Miles desk next week sometime. Until then I'll let the haul hang out and relax. That will give it a chance to acclimate from Highland to my shop.

done

Happy with the shine on the end grain. I had slapped the last coat of shellac on it last night after dinner. 

2nd glamour pic

All of the bookshelves are finished 360. They can be viewed and placed without regard to the back of it being seen.

2nd cherry one

Got this one laid out, chopped and dry fitted before lunch. I couldn't close it up with hand pressure on the shelf. The back slats fitted ok and all four, including the shelf, fit in their respective spots snug.

hmm......

This left side isn't bottoming out even with clamp pressure. After playing with for a while and clamping it with different clamps I got nowhere with closing it up. I was getting frustrated so I left it be to go have fish 'n chips. That gave me while to think about what might be the problem.

came today

These walnut dowels ain't cheap. With S/H, 200 dowels are .36 cents each. You can do the math to get the cost.

better

The wall on the bottom of the dado was a wee bit off 90°.  Straightened that out and got it to close up.  Fingers crossed that I can repeat this when I glue it up.

hmm.......

No round overs this time. Instead I put a small angle on the front. I used the cherry bookshelf I keep by my desk for the pattern.

glued and cooking

Had a senior moment aka, a brain fart. I forgot to do the cutout for the legs/feet. Oh well, I'll have to put on my big boy pants and do it after it comes out of the clamps.

hmm......

Got the walnut for the first walnut bookshelf prepped. The back slats look too thick to my eye. As is they are 3/4" and I planed them down to 5/8". That thickness looked like the winner IMO.

not easy

Doing layout on the walnut was a bit difficult. Lead pencil doesn't show on the walnut and my 71 year old peepers were almost useless. I got it done by using a different square for each layout line. Took me twice as long to do as the cherry and pine ones.

layout done

It was past quitting time when I got the layout done. I'll chop on this in the AM.

hmm......

There is some wane on the left end but that will be removed when I do the angle on it. Decided to nix the round over and do an angle like I did on the cherry one. The defect on the back slat I'm keeping. I will fill that in with epoxy and black pigment. I just have to remember to keep it facing up when I do the glue up.

accidental woodworker

Accoya timber is one of those materials that quietly changes the way you think about woodworking. It looks like any other softwood at first glance, but what’s happening beneath the surface is entirely different. This timber is essentially radiata pine that has been modified through a process called acetylation, which changes the chemical structure of the wood. The result is a material that is incredibly stable, resistant to rot, and surprisingly durable, even in harsh outdoor conditions. For a hand tool woodworker, this makes it both a joy and a challenge. It planes, saws, and finishes beautifully, and because it doesn’t move much with changes in moisture, you don’t get the warping or cupping that makes other softwoods frustrating for work.

What’s also fascinating about Accoya is its environmental story. Unlike some exotic hardwoods, it comes from sustainably managed forests, and the acetylation process itself doesn’t introduce toxic chemicals. This gives you peace of mind, especially if you’re making furniture or joinery that will be in contact with people, animals, or even food. The stability of the wood also opens up possibilities for projects you might have avoided with traditional pine or cedar. Decking, window frames, cladding, or outdoor furniture all benefit from the low maintenance and long lifespan Accoya offers. You’re not constantly worrying about sealing, staining, or replacing pieces after a few years.

Using Accoya doesn’t feel like using a compromise. It’s strong yet lightweight, easy to work with hand tools, and takes finishes well. You can glue it, screw it, and even carve it with the kind of predictable behavior that makes woodworking enjoyable. It’s the kind of material that rewards patience and craftsmanship because what you craft from it will last decades without the usual problems of movement and decay. Every cut, plane, and joint you make holds its shape, and over time, you realize that the effort you put into crafting something is protected by the wood itself.

Accoya isn’t cheap compared with ordinary softwoods you might pick up for a quick shed or internal project. It’s marketed as a premium engineered wood, and that’s because its performance and durability come from a chemical modification process that makes the wood resist moisture and rot far better than untreated pine. Accoya’s own site says it is a premium product and not the lowest cost option, but the trade‑off is longevity, less maintenance and strong warranties that ordinary timber just doesn’t offer. You can read more about that on the manufacturer’s site here: https://www.accoya.com/au/faq/is-accoya-expensive/

Actual prices in Australia give a sense of what that means in practice. For example, Accoya cladding boards listed at one timber supplier are around forty to fifty dollars per metre for thinner pieces and just over fifty dollars per metre for wider boards. Another supplier shows decking starting around thirty eight dollars per metre and running up to around seventy six dollars per metre for some profiles. A third local dealer lists sample retail prices including decking and cladding from roughly thirty to over a hundred dollars per metre depending on size and thickness.

Those numbers put Accoya solidly above untreated pine or basic timber products but in a range comparable to durable hardwoods and high‑end engineered materials. What that means in a build is a higher upfront material cost, but with the benefit of reduced movement, fewer refinishing cycles and decades of performance that often makes the initial spend feel worthwhile to people building long‑lasting work.

Here a link to where I sourced the prices from :

https://www.canterburytimbers.com.au/collections/accoya-decking
https://www.canterburytimbers.com.au/products/accoya-natural-cladding-185x21mm
https://austim.com.au/pricing/

To get a closer look at Accoya and see what makes it special, watch this video from the makers themselves.

NB. For the regular home hobbyist who isn’t a banker, Accoya’s cost may put it out of reach. Many of us are now forced to scale down our projects rather than creating the furniture and larger items we once enjoyed. Timber prices have risen sharply over the last five years and continue to grow, which makes some of us question whether woodworking can remain a financially viable hobby.

Rolled out of the rack at oh dark 34 and I was headed north to New Hampshire at 0501 I arrived at Highland at 0734. It took a little over 2 1/2 hours which was dead on with the google driving estimate. Traffic going up on 95 was busy and thinned out a little on 495. Not bad for a weekday. 

I went to the McDonald's about a mile from Highland and got a coffee and an egg Mcmuffin to kill the 20 minutes until Highland opened. When they opened I went nutso buying cherry for Miles desk. Added poplar and shorts of walnut to round out the bill. I left Highland $460 lighter.

I got back to the barn at 1130 which was about right for the round trip. I haven't been to Highland since COVID shut things down. Memory muscle kicked in and no problems driving up and back. Other than the exit numbers being changed there wasn't anything to throw me a curve ball. Decided to buy the wood for the desks one at a time, so I'll be making a 2nd trip up north for Leo in march/april?

what $460 looks like

From left to right - 1/2 poplar for the drawers, should be enough for Miles and Leo's desk plus extra. Next is 8/4 cherry for the legs (again for Miles and Leo) with the walnut shorts on top of it. The walnut came from the shorts bin and it cost over $50. I got it to make a walnut bookshelf. The next batter is 5/4 cherry, dressed to 1" thick. This will be used for the desk top. In the clean up slot is 4/4 cherry for the rails and slats. I went overboard on this getting much more than I'll need. Whatever is left over will go to Leo's desk.

breaking down the poplar

I sawed all the poplar into 2 foot lengths for the drawer stock. I was shocked at the BF price for 1/2" poplar. I should have looked at it before I bought it ($62 for six, 6 foot boards).

cherry back slats

I found some left over 1/2" cherry to give up the slats I needed. I sawed them to 7/16" on the tablesaw and planed it smooth.

hmm.......

I kind of like this uneven width between the back slats. It is a few frog hairs less than 1/8". The wider one will go on the bottom and thinner one on the top.

walnut

This is long enough to get two sets of ends from. There is some wane but I can saw it off and still have the width I want for the ends.

reference edge

I planed one rough edge flat and smooth. The opposite face it still rough sawn. I'll have to thickness because as is it is about an inch thick.

hmm......

There was enough walnut to get two bookshelves. When I got it at Highland I thought I would get one from it.

sigh

This chunk of wane puts a damper on this piece of walnut being used as a shelf. I want a shelf that is a minimum of 5" wide. Sawing off the wane would leave a width of roughly 4". I ain't driving back to Highlands to buy another walnut short.

oops

Need two more slats for the 2nd bookshelf. Don't know how I zoned that out.

going nutso again

I have whacked five bookshelves already. I have 6 more waiting for me to build.

why not?

Thinking of using this piece of cherry as the shelf. Cherry and walnut have a good contrast between them. Another option is to go to Koszela lumber which I might do. I really would like these two to be all walnut if possible.

milk paint dyes

This is for another project I have in the queue. I want to make another miniature chest and use these to color the milk paint. I need to get a few more colors, red and yellow being on the top of the list. I couldn't find these on Amazon where I got these 3. I'll search again tonight.

hmm.......

No more Gurney's sawmill pine left excepts for small scraps. This is Lowes pine and I'll have to make another run to buy a couple of more boards. The EWP (eastern white pine) bin at Highlands was empty as in no pine at all.

hmm.......

The top board will give up the sides and the bottom board can be a front, back, or lid. The current project queue is full to bursting. I'll be busy for a while.

accidental woodworker 

But it could have been better. Information-postwar became more consumably low-grade but then again excessive too, to the degree that too much information took too much spend-time for people to pay enough attention to actually read it. Professor Henry Simmons, a specialist in information, said that it became an issue when there was too much information for individuals to process in the time that they had available. How much more so today. Especially as 98% of what's taking our time is of no worth at all. And that was back in 1965, btw. But things did become slack, as is the case in this leaflet. Of course, back then, the processing of hand outs like this were more time-consuming to produce than in our digital world today. How often do I hear, "Oh, I just use ChatGPT, it's amazing." . A new age of printouts was still yet to come. In our age of instant digital full-colour printouts, we can produce a leaflet at the drop of a hat and send it around the world in the same drop-of-a-hat split seconds, no problem. Enough said. This leaflet was given away free in the box with Record planes. I read it and thought it could have been much better.

Firstly, the Record Company of Sheffield, UK gives no acknowledgement to the designer of the plane and presents it as a Record Company plane design when they designed not one jot of the design in any way. The plane is a Leonard Bailey USA knock-off design of a hundred and fifty years ago. This Leonard Bailey design surpassed any and all British made versions in terms of longevity, adjustability, cost and so on. Though there have been more robust versions made (meaning heavy, clunky and too weighty for versatility in any field of use), I'm thinking mostly BedRock versions with minor but no better frog differences made by engineers using better tooling and tighter tolerances––but not one of them outperforms the Stanley originals in any way. So, the authors should have acknowledged that the Record plane was nothing to do with a Sheffield design, but should at the very least have acknowledged Leonard Bailey as the inventor and designer. In the same way, most if not all modern copyists of all Stanley versions never mention nor show any acknowledgement or respect for Leonard Bailey. A dozen copyists and more fail to respect what this designer gave to the woodworking world. For the main part Lie Nielsen, Quang Sheng, Juuma, Wood River, Clifton and many more, instead of hoping Leonard Bailey's name will be forgotten, should attribute the inventor by acknowledging clearly that they did nothing more than copy the whole of his original designs but with very minor tweaks.

What's Wrong Then?

The pamphlet states: "Record planes have many points of advantage to users." They don't offer anything beyond the Stanley invention of Leonard Bailey bench plane designs, so no such thing, and certainly no more than the common or garden Stanley.

"The parts for adjusting the cutting iron are accurately made to give very fine adjustment." Not really. There is as much slack in a Record plane take-up as there is in any Stanley. That said, slack is fine. The slacker, the better for me. A quick spin of a well-worn adjustment wheel and a floppy lateral adjustment lever works well by the flick of a thumb or forefinger. My fingers take up the slack in a heartbeat, and I'm set.

The article refers to the underside of the plane, the sole, only as the "base of the Body" and never identifies the plane sole as such anywhere. Now as far as anyone knows the underside of the plane has always been referred to as the plane sole.

"This Cutting iron is hardened and tempered under scientific control, which ensures accuracy and uniformity." Come on, I mean. I mean, what's scientific control but twaddle-speak anyway? I have never found any noticeable difference between Record and Stanley plane irons, either...to the point that I use them interchangeably.

More: "It is of the utmost importance that the correct grinding angle of 25º is maintained." That's never really been true. If you want a two-bevel method you can do that, but for three centuries before this time craftsmen responsible for some of the finest woodwork ever in history never ground their cutting irons to twin bevels nor a hollow grind as standard but rough ground and then whetted or honed, same thing, the whole bevel to a sort of, roughly, near to a quarter ellipse as show in the drawing. Having examined many a hundred plane irons that go back two centuries and more, every plane iron I ever saw was simply sharpened to a camber. It's just our generation that thinks we are better and more developed to come up with a complex composition of micro and macro this or that so that we can tell others you must do this and that.

I can tell by eye if or when I have allowed a bevel to get too 'thick' and I think I may have checked a bevel angle once or twice in the last three decades. That said, we do need a goal to shoot for, and why not somewhere between 20º and 35º? Why 20º? Well, not for plane irons, but yes, for paring chisels. These chisels are rarely if ever struck heavily, and neither are they levered with much either. They rely on hand and arm power to pare cut surface protrusions and such, so the bevel of resistance can be deemed less necessary. You are unlikely to get cutting-edge fracture with hand paring actions. But we do gently tap a paring chisel in necessary situations. I should also point out that on bevel-down planes the angle of the cutting iron bevel can be anywhere between two or three degrees less than the bed angle of the frog, so on Bailey-pattern planes that's around 44º so you can go as steep as 42º and it will cut fine. What am I saying? The bevel on bevel-down planes has no consequential effect on the cut because, well, it's tucked out of the way wholly behind the flat face and never touches the wood. Any wall of resistance on these cutting irons will be on the wide flat face, not the bevel. Duh!

But it could have been better. Information-postwar became more consumably low-grade but then again excessive too, to the degree that too much information took too much spend-time for people to pay enough attention to actually read it. Professor Henry Simmons, a specialist in information, said that it became an issue when there was too much...

Source

Now about a month out from our weather episode that brought three inches of snow, three inches of sleet, a half inch of rain, and another two inches of snow, we are starting to see some ground again.

These two picture were taken from the same spot, just turned 180-degrees.  South facing slope?  Grass!  North facing slope?  Glacier.

Tomorrow – harvesting firewood Day 1

 Still haven't finished the 'extra' cherry bookshelf. It might be done tomorrow though. fingers crossed on that. Wandered down a one way street and I played with making two more small cherry bookcases. Spent most of the afternoon shift in the boneyard cleaning up and organizing what is staying, what it going to the dump, and what is going to my sister Kam. I have to have all this sorted out before the wife comes home from North Carolina.

forgotten pic

This was the one thing I said I got done yesterday but forgot to include pics of in the post. Kind of large but it fits in the drill stand cabinet - I am slowly smarting up and putting drill related things in that cabinet.

good fit

I wanted to make the box out of solid wood but I didn't have any thin wood in this width. The lid is a decent fit with a consistent gap 360.

2 1/2"

The OD is 2 1/2" and I was mildly surprised by the quality of it. Not what I expected from China.

unexpected

Came with a replacement center drill bit and the allen wrench.

hmm......

Don't know what the purpose of the spring.

nice fit

I really like this fit - it is just a couple of frog hair worth of clearance. Seriously thought about removing the insert and redoing it. Nixed that because I glued the insert in with hide glue. 

1/8" dowels

They ain't a 1/8" diameter, they are a 64th under. An 1/8" drilled hole is too loose and I want these to be snug.

done

Got two dowels in each pad. I was nervous about the thinner back one possibly cracking/splitting but they didn't. I drill the dowels at a slight angle too. 

sneak peek

This will work well for DVD/CDs. I don't have any paperbacks to check how they would seat on the shelf. 

hmm......

This is the left over cherry from the 3 other cherry bookshelves. These are the two boards from resawing one in half. There is one divot on the left one and two big and one small one on the right one. The plan was to thin the boards to 1/2" and hopefully that would remove the divots. The thickest part of either board is wee bit more than 9/16".

gone

Wasn't sure that I could get this to a 1/2" and remove the divot. Got lucky and I have a 1/2" thick cherry board for a shelf. 

wash, rinse, and repeat

The right board was a bit dicey IMO because one divot was deeper than the other two.  The divots on this board planed away smoothly with no headaches.

the problem divot

This is the before pic of the big divot on the right board. The only problem I had planing this to thickness was planing it down to the gauge lines. The left side ate up a lot of calories and time before they disappeared.

about 32nd more

I planed a ton of shavings off this side seemingly without lowering the face. Eventually I got it. The divot disappeared long before this gauge line did.

gone

Extremely happy that I planed the divot away and didn't dip below the 1/2" thickness.

hmm......

Planing to thickness for the ends, one I had to plane 3/16" off and the other a 1/4". The plan is have the ends at 5/8", the shelf 1/2", and the back slats 3/8".

done

This board I was expecting some tear to happen but none did. Got zero tear out using a #6, #7, #5 1/2, and #4. 

my LN 4 1/2

This isn't a plane that I use that much but I needed it today. The second board I planed to thickness for the ends tore out. The grain on it ran almost dead straight end to end except for one little curly Q spot. The 4 1/2 plowed through it without a whimper and dead smooth. I keep a 55° frog in this plane just dealing with wonky grain.

done

I still have to plane the back slats from a 1/2" to  3/8" but I didn't do that today. Playing with the shelves and ends had me sweating by the time I stopped. A little over 2 hours start to finish. As an aside the shop temp is hovering at a comfortable 63F/17C. The temp in shop has risen 4 degrees in the past 3 days.

final prep

Sanded the end grain on the ends up to 220. Almost forgot to do and caught it as I was ready to slap shellac on it.

fanned out

Don't know if I mentioned this before but in case I didn't here goes. When I'm done with my shellac I manually fan the brush out. It holds this shape well until it is time to use it again. I have found that it dissolves in alcohol much quicker than if I didn't do this. 

shellac time

The cherry one is awfully close to be done. The pine one is just starting out. I do the bottom first 4-5 coats before I do the rest of it.

the problem spot

It raking light the end grain looks a bit dull IMO. Since I'm applying shellac to the pine one I'll keep putting shellac on this area until I'm happy with it.

made in Germany

This belonged to my wife's grandmother and she doesn't want it. Typical german engineering because it is built like a tank. The drive belt is all metal - no rubber at all. If anyone wants it let me know - it would be just the sewing machine and accessories. The cabinet has water damage and rot so it is toast. 

nice touch

That is the original oiler for the machine along with the instruction booklet. It is a small instruction booklet, I would have expected something closer to 8" x 11".

nice haul

I saved the hardware for just in case. I might not ever have the need for it but you never know. This do dad thing was for locking down the lid.

hmm.......

Found this in the boneyard - box I started and stopped. I had applied hinges but removed them and plugged the screw holes. Never progressed beyond that. Thinking now of applying the banding on the box bottom and lid bottom and top. I ordered more banding today and I'll leave this on the workbench so I don't forget about it.

boneyard find #2

This is a jewelry box I made a bazillion years ago. It is a pine box with a floating cherry panel in the lid. Because it is mostly pine it really hasn't resonated with me as being worthy of a jewelry box. That changed and I'll be finally finishing this. All it needs is for me to slap a few coats of shellac on it.

the interior

The hinges took me several years to install. I used Brusso hinges and I epoxied the screws in the lid. Because of the thin lid I couldn't use a full length screw. Maybe this would be good enough for one of my young nieces?

accidental woodworker

The shavings fell from every plane and the river of shavings kept building before my broom could get to them. "Get a move on, lad!" Merlin shouted across the bench as I swept the shavings as vigorously as a two-foot wide broom could go. You'd be surprised how much plane work resulting in shavings half a dozen men can produce in an hour of full-on planing. Pines of different kinds, oak, walnut, ash and beech. All of a different hue and scent. This becomes enrichment to a boy like me. That was then and this is now. I still have the same scents in my shop every day. Looking back on it now, I doubt that there are many out there who have ever seen what was a common sight back in the pre 1960s. Ten bin bags but hessian or burlap sacks went to burn in the boiler where I stoked waste wood to heat the workshop all day long. But I loved it. The banter back and forth, the way the men talked about their political beliefs, the arguing for one party or another and then those in the union condemning those who weren't. Then there was a certain kind of solitude in the working of the hand tools. Three men using handsaws, two with planes and another two with chisel chops coming from mortising an extra mortise. But then there was something else in these postwar heroes. They sang, they whistled, they hummed, and they sang songs they knew from their war years that lifted their spirits' in camaraderie. George was way too young for the war, but he too knew all the songs, and he'd sing along or whistle. I liked it best when they would spontaneously start ad hoc music with sticks and flexed saws; Keith pulled out his harmonica, he was good, and then the a cappella singing of men harmonising quite out of the blue had the distinct brilliance only spontaneity can bring; I have yet to hear anywhere ever again in such a real and vivid man's working environment. The masculinity of it was pervasive as if mixing with the scents of the wood, the accumulated aromatics unique to only truly vintage woodshop.

After sweeping, I would end up on the clamping machine that we used to clamp massive or small frames together, seating a dozen or so mortise and tenons in a frame all at the press of a single foot treadle before we drove the pins through the joints to hold them. Even then, there was a synchrony that somehow steadied the work from every man and boy. I learned the songs they sang. Vera Lynn's "We'll meet again..." but then they'd mingle in a classical opera piece or a more modern singer from the 50s. What is it that we lost from that era. Where do you ever hear men sing together at work? The work itself never stopped, except for an odd crooning moment where two or three of them sang Etta James' "Stormy Weather" in perfect pitch and harmony. The deep, 'do woos' background and such followed by lots of Nat King Cole "Unforgettable", "Rambling Rose."

Our singling lasted for 20 minutes. The work harmony melded with the camaraderie every other day. It was spirit lifting and we to a man took our part. Old Bill had just about lost the breath to sing, but his lips moved in unison with everyone elses. The prompts from the radio usually sparked one or another to start singing, but then too there was another aspect to the environment I saw from these men. An illness, a broken relationship, the loss of a newborn, a teen crisis by one prompted support from another. It was a whole support network never spoken or voiced into being, and yet two men, maybe three, huddled in a group to support some failure on the part of one family they might never have met. These few men impacted my life. It wasn't always good, but generally, they somehow softened under the weight of supporting one another. The war changed the working classes to empower them in ways we could never really anticipate. I wonder where we are today.

Anyway, just a few thoughts!

The shavings fell from every plane and the river kept building before my broom could get to them. “Get a move on, lad!” Merlin shouted across the bench as I swept the shavings as vigorously as a two-foot wide broom could go. You’d be surprised how much plane work resulting in shavings half a dozen...

Source

I was given this plane in pretty rough condition by a guy who really didn't know anything about planes.  One telltale sign was that the iron was upside down when I got it (bevel up).  And while I know a fair bit about planes, I knew little about this particular brand when I started on this one.

The plane as found

Something look funny here?

Maybe the upside down iron explains why the cutting edge  was so chewed up!

It's an oddball size - it has a 9 1/2" long sole similar to a Stanley #4, but the sole's width is 2 1/8" and the iron is 1 3/4" wide, like a #3.  Initially, the only identifying mark I could find on the plane was the remnant of a DUNLAP decal on the broken tote.  From a Dunlap type study that I found online, a #3 size plane has the 1 3/4" wide iron, but the plane should be only 8" long (or 9 1/4", depending on the source of info).  Go figure.

I found two websites that were very helpful in researching this plane.  According to justtheplanefacts.com and aplanelife.us, Dunlap planes were manufactured for Sears by either Millers Falls, Sargent, or possibly at one time by a West German maker.  Some details point to this plane being made by Sargent in the 1940-41 time frame, but I think it is probably a bit later than that - maybe the mid 1950's (reference the Dunlap type study on the A Plane Life site).

Here's the plane fully disassembled, complete with broken tote and bent tote screw/post

Initially, I could find no identifying marks on the casting, iron, cap iron or lever cap.  The only marks I could find are a casting number on the frog (5272) and a raised "MADE IN USA" mark on the main casting just below the adjuster knob.  However, since I started writing this, I cleaned up the iron and it's got DUNLAP APPROVED BL stamped clearly at the top.

DUNLAP APPROVED BL

Here's the iron all cleaned up, but not yet sharpened. Note the hole for the cap-iron screw is at the top, unlike Stanley plane irons.

I had to grind back to the blue line before grinding a new bevel and sharpening

According to the sites I referenced, the "BL" and the cap-iron screw hole location are indicators of a plane made by Sargent.  So is the upside-down U-shaped lateral adjust lever.

As for the plane's casting, I took sandpaper to the sides and sole.  They looked horrible, but cleaned up fairly easily.  A wire wheel in the drill was used to clean up all the hardware.

The body was really grungy and the sole was horribly rough

But it cleaned up nicely

The tote was broken, so I cleaned up the mating surfaces and reglued it.  I'll have to see if that fix holds over time.  Originally, the tote had a decal or two on the left side.  Unfortunately, more than half of it was gone.  It looked like there was once another decal up where the middle finger grips the tote, but it was missing completely.

The still-broken tote showing remnants of a decal

Here's another interesting tidbit.  The yoke was a two-piece construction, as opposed to a casting.  It still works fine, but it's interesting that the two "fingers" of the yoke can move independently.  That's no big deal; when the plane is assembled, the adjuster nut keeps them aligned.

The two-piece yoke

Here showing how the two "fingers" can be misaligned with each other

When I finally had the parts cleaned up and the iron sharp, I put it together, adjusted the frog to get a reasonably tight mouth, and tried it out.  It made a shaving, but the shaving was like an accordion.

First shaving all crinkled up

I'm aware this could be caused by the cap-iron being too far forward.  Some adjustment helped, but not enough.  I also noticed a rippling effect when face planing.

You can see the ripples

So there was some juddering of the plane as I planed along the face of a board.  To me, that points to issues with how well the frog and plane body keep the iron firmly in place.  Here's where I really had to do some work.  The surfaces of the frog and plane body where they meet were painted or japanned, and were not level, so the contact between the two was poor.

Pointing to one of two spots where the frog sits. These needed to be filed/sanded level and flat.

Same with the frog seat

Frog seat filed flat

After this, I was able to get a better edge shaving, but there was still a big problem.

Got a much better edge grain shaving ...

... but when planing the face grain, CLUNK! The plane stopped in it's tracks and dug in hard!

Here's the problem with this plane and it's a serious design flaw.  And it's also why I think the plane was made in the '50's - you know, after plane makers "forgot" how to make planes that worked well.

The frog of Stanley planes has two flat areas that mate with two flat areas on the plane body.  The frog "seat" and the frog "toe" both should be milled flat and mate precisely with corresponding spots on the plane body.

Locations of the frog seat and toe

In this plane, not only is there no milled spot on the plane body for the frog toe to mate with, but the frog toe doesn't even come in contact with the plane body at all!  It's basically cantilevered out over the plane body, just behind the mouth.  Without support there, it's no wonder that the frog and iron don't have enough support to plane face grain.

This is a piece of cardboard, probably about 1/32" thick

Sliding the cardboard under the frog's toe.  I could have fit 3 or 4 of these cardboard pieces in there.  And this was with the frog bolted firmly in place!

I've started trying to make a piece of wood that will fill that gap, but I don't hold out hope that it will fix the problem.  But for this plane to work, I believe there needs to be firm support for the toe of the frog.

Summarizing, there are a couple of details that gave hints about the maker and age of this plane, thanks to the type study provided by A Plane Life.  The position of the iron's keyhole, the "BL" on the iron, the inverted U-shaped lateral adjust lever, and the two-piece yoke all indicate a plane made by Sargent.  The lever cap had been nickel plated, though the plating was removed when I cleaned up the plane.  The nickel plating indicates a plane possibly made in the 1940-1942 timeframe.  Other details include the double threaded 12-20 rods that hold the tote and knob, the brass waist nuts holding the stained hardwood tote and knob, and the three-ridged knurling of the adjuster knob.  But even with these clues, I can't help suspect that this plane was made in the mid-1950's due to the shoddiness of the design.

This is an odd plane for sure.  If there are any collectors of Dunlap planes out there and you're interested in this plane, please let me know and I'll be happy to mail it to you free of charge.

Edo period, late 18th century
Last week I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art - the first visit in awhile. I had a good experience (aside from a supposed upgrade to the coat check that entailed a time-wasting data entry session on an iPad rather than the give-a-jacket-get-a-number standard method).

One of the exhibits I had wanted to see was on "The Infinite Artistry of Japanese Ceramics." As expected, the exhibit was full of pottery, fabrics and wood prints. I was struck by one very nice-looking modern piece. Being open minded, I said to myself, "That's great, they're having some modern stuff along with the old stuff. It's a really wonderful contrast between old and new." But then I took a closer look at this "modern" pottery and discovered, much to my surprise, that was 250 years old! A lot of pieces on display were just like that: modern design in appearance, but in fact actually centuries old. This phenomenon can be a real source of double-takes, because it turns on its head what it means to say "modern" as opposed to "new." After all, usually when talking about design, when someone says, "This is a very modern piece," they also mean it's new and cutting edge. Certain designers like Gerrit Rietveld have designs from the 1920's that don't look dated. But I wouldn't exactly call them "modern." I would say Rietveld's furniture doesn't look like most current furniture that would be considered modern today. In the case of modernist Danish 20th century design, Ikea has commonly co-opted everything, and increasingly anything that's sort of Danish style is assumed to be mass-market and probably cheap junk. But it's not, and it doesn't have to be.

But seeing this Japanese pottery and not identifying the style as modern makes no sense to me. Sure, you can say it's from such and such a period, and such and such an artist, but it still looks modern. Also notable: this style didn't really catch on. Most of the other pieces in the show, some quite beautiful, certainly look of their time period. NYC has several Japanese supermarkets (and Korean and Chinese markets that stock Japanese items) in which some of the same patterns of the not-so-modern goods are still on offer. But we wouldn't call those designs "modern." Is it possible that the word "modern" means "different from the standard of the time" rather than new per se? If the style catches on and everyone copies or riffs upon it, then the style will get its own name. For example, "mid-century modern" defines a specific genre in a specific style. Eventually the style became more accepted, and then more simplified, until it became (in the popular consciousness anyway - and I say this as someone who once owned a Wim & Karen bed) as "Ikea" or "Ikea-style." Rietveld's furniture, nearly a hundred years on, still looks pretty avant-garde. But it never really became a thing. The Bauhaus design movement (1919-1933), which eventually evolved in many respects to mid-century modern Danish furniture, was designed from the get go be be factory made and lent itself to a popular genre - even if later designs aren't directly connected with the Bauhaus. (And perhaps Bauhaus nowadays is best known as the name of the British goth band.) Reitveld, on the other hand, designed his furniture to be made largely by hand so anyone could built his designs from common wood materials. But most of his work would be fussy on an assembly line and his style never caught on.

I'm wondering if 300 years ago in Japan, a potter produced a pot, and his friend said "That's a really modern pot!" and the potter replied, "Yeah, shame nobody likes anything new." That potter used a design vocabulary of his region and most of what he made would be in that design vocabulary because that's what people wanted - the definition of a popular style. Doing anything new and different would make the creator an outlier - and outliers are the modernists of their time. And it seems that, at least back then in Japan, a potter's idea of a modern design would be pretty much what we would call modern today. And now, like then, people still mostly prefer traditional designs (simplified for manufacture) not modernism.

Early 17th century
Changing anything for anyone making products is always a risk. You need to convince people that the conventional style, which is by definition what is popular, is just one option, and other options are different and better in a meaningful way. That's not easy to do and this problem has been true from centuries.

N.B. Before you accuse me of drawing conclusions without enough evidence, let me remind you that for centuries archeologists have been postulating civilizations and taxonomy based on the survival of a single bone. So I am in good company! The furniture in museums isn't usually representative of what most people had. Rather it represents what donors and other rich people used - and what managed to survive.

Edo period, ca. 1670-90

Cast iron and Bronze. Onishi Gorozaemon mid-17th century

 Got my truck back today and the driver who picked me up said we are getting an inch of the white stuff tonight. There is snow, freezing rain, and sleet in the forecast for the next week. Thursday is supposed to be partly sunny and it is looking like the only day for a while that I can make the trip north to Highlands Hardwoods is then. hmm......

nope

The pkg says 350 dots and there is no way this pkg has 350 dots but that isn't the problem. The problem is the thickness of the dots which are almost an 1/8" thick each. I'll have to search Amazon and buy something else for attaching the photos.

changed my mind again

I like how the wedge cures the shelf tilt headache but I don't like length of it. The wedge also negates the cutout for the legs. Going back to the drawing board to come up with plan #2.

signature change

These are the initials I have engraved on my bench plane lever caps. Decided to go from cursive initials to print ones.

hmm.....

Rasped a small chamfer on the feet. This shouldn't get dragged around like a chair so the small chamfers should suffice. Fingers crossed on that.

shellac time

Getting 4-5 coats on the feet first. Then I'll do 4-5 on it with it upright.

the oops bookshelf

Chiseled the Miller dowel flush with the back slat. It isn't visible at all looking at the bookshelf in situ.

hmm......

This is better. Not exactly what I prefer but it fixes the oops better than the full length wedge.

gap filling

This shim has the long grain facing up. Made it a wee bit dicey hammering it into the gap and filling it.

gap on the left

I wasn't going to fill this one but I had a lot of shim material left so why not? I went with solid wood because wood putty stands out with shellac applied to it.

one more gap to fill

The bottom of the dado really sticks out with the left side gap filled. 

first step

Sized the bottom of the legs with super glue. After it had dried I super glued the 'pads' to the legs.

almost done

The edges on the ends  and the shelf only have two coats. The rest of the bookshelf has 4 coats. Won't be done today but it should be fini in the AM.

accidental woodworker 

Happy Year of the Horse from Hello Kitty and Giant Cypress!

 My wife left for North Carolina on sunday to keep daughter #2 company while her husband is away on a business trip. The bookcase didn't go but the glass door cabinet did. Supposedly the bookcase is going south on the next trip south. Now I have to get it out of the shop and into the boneyard but that may be a headache. My wife is turning it into a reading room. Translation - I can't use the boneyard anymore for projects.

hmm.......

From China and there are three 93 1/2" long bandsaw blades. The current blade on the bandsaw burned the cherry bookshelf badly. I had to expend extra calories to rasp and sand it away.

hmm......

This sat overnight on the front porch step in below freezing weather. Before I try and use them I'll let them warm up for a few hours.

nope

Decided to put this away for now. Ace has 2 1/2" hole saws from $30 to $52 which were too much but I did find and order one on Amazon for $10. I'll have it tomorrow.

might be toast

The burning hole from yesterday may have drawn the temper out of this. I sharpened it and put it away. Two days ago I found a pkg with two of these cutters but I can't find where I put them down. 

look at what I found

I didn't know I had this big ass bit - it is a little more than 2 5/8". That is close enough to the 2 1/2" diameter I need. Before I used it I sharpened it again with my diamond stone paddles. You can see that the machining on this isn't something to write home about.

new insert

This piece of pine is between rift and quarter sawn, perfect for the insert. 

ok....

There is about a 16th clearance all around the guide. A little sloppy IMO but I won't have to worry about it binding in the hole.

insert ready

The bushings fit in a 5/8" hole. The top of them is shouldered and that is acting like a stop for them. 

sigh....

Put the cart before the horse. I missed sawing the insert to length before drilling for the bushings. On to insert #2.

got it

The fit is snug. After I drilled all the holes, planed it for a drop in fit.

lid

I sized the lid to be almost a dead on flush match with the outside of the box. I did this because the plan is to put a rabbet on the underside of the lid to fit in the inside of the box.

Lie Nielsen skew block plane

Ran a knife line 360 and planed down to it until I removed it. Did the end grain ends first and then the long grain sides.

not an oops

The length fits well. It dropped into place with no binding and no slop neither. However, the width doesn't fit. I planed the rabbet shoulders with my 1/2" shoulder plane. The pencil line on the lid is what I thicknessed the lid down to - 3/8" after fitting the lid.

hmm......

I chamfered the edges to soften them. As of now, I don't plan on putting a knob on the lid or making a finger access divot. 

lid is done

Didn't like the chamfered look so I sanded them to a round over. 

not enough

I wanted to use walnut dowels for the contrast with the cherry but it ain't happening today boys and girls. Thought of using birch but went with cherry.

finishing the ends

I had sanded the outside of the ends up to 220 but there were scratches left from the flush cut saw. Scraped them away with a card scraped.

gotta save this

I was going to cut the back slats and the shelf off but nixed it. The shelf would have ended up with a width too narrow but the length would have been ok. Decided to try and salvage it somehow.

hmm.......

Sawed two 7° wedges and put them under the feet. The shelf is tilted  up and back and the sneakers on the legs don't look wonky IMO. It is just a concept and the only hiccup I see is the back sneaker is a little on the thin side. That could be a potential breakage point.

Another headache is the orientation of the grain on the sneakers. The end grain side is against the feet. I had to make two more sets that had the long grain facing up against the feet. Doing that was bit of pain in the arse. None of the do dads I had for setting an angle worked - the 3/4" thick stock wasn't thick enough to lay out the angle.

better

I don't know what this angle is - I laid it out from the left bottom corner with the angle going up to a end point 6 1/2" away. This fix is growing on me and I'm thinking of keeping it.

squaring it off

This almost gave me a headache trying to figure out how to square this end off to saw. I could have sawn the angle to match the front edge but I wanted it squared off.

hmm.......

I think this is the way to go. The sneakers on the bottom look deliberate.

that is an option

As I was getting ready to kill the lights this popped into the brain bucket. Cut/saw the sneakers to match the length of the back and front feet plus a 1/4". Maybe even follow the curve of the cutout into the sneakers. Time to think about it over night.

 accidental woodworker

I’ve been carving stuff in the shop, some panels and the beginnings of two more strapwork boxes, one white oak, one walnut. All sawn stock, my riven oak is just beginning to poke out from under the snow. Today’s post on the substack blog is free-to-all subscribers (paid & free) – there I talk about some period carvings and post a couple of carved panels for sale…
https://peterfollansbeejoinerswork.substack.com/p/more-about-carved-panels-plus-video

But I’ve been wanting to work some recent bird photos into my everyday blog, just haven’t had much room. I have too much to say about the woodwork. The winter weather has brought some of the raptors in closer, some of them have a hard time finding food in the snow, so the bird feeders bring possible prey into view for them. That’s how I read it anyway. I know it’s true of the cooper’s hawk (Astur cooperii) – this one snatched somebody from around the bird feeders, then fed up in the top of the apple tree.

While I photographed this bird from the open back door, I saw a larger raptor swing by – just turned the camera quickly, thinking “I’ll get this red-tail…” – turned out to be a bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) –

we don’t often see them here, but the river was open water – most of the ponds around here are frozen over. He was gone in an instant.

Another day another raptor. Thought I saw two more red-tail hawks flying over the house…they too were gone in an instant. Then half-hour later, saw two hawks perched in the sycamore tree next door – but they were red-shouldered hawks, not red-tailed hawks. (Buteo lineatus) – I couldn’t get them both in the same shot – this one posed more cooperatively than the other.

Down in the river one day saw these buffleheads – the smallest duck. (Bucephala albeola) –

these are females and for a little while I worked myself into a state of confusion by mis-reading Sibley’s book about the bufflehead. What I thought I read was that the male doesn’t show his breeding plumage in the winter…which is not the case. Doubly-so. Not what the book said, not what the duck does. I know I’ve seen many breeding-plumage male buffleheads over the years – but they breed far north & west of here. Far. Below is a shot from the same river, same backyard, almost exactly a year ago – one male, two females. These birds are pretty skittish, I can never get close to them.

My birding mentor Marie helped sort me out. Momentary collapse of reading comprehension. It happens.

The red-tail hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) are around regularly – this one, a juvenile – tried to snatch someone from the feeder-crowd. Missed, then perched in the catalpa tree right outside the shop. Often you can get near juvys for good shots –

Every snowy winter we try to get a good photo of the northern cardinal male in the holly tree. I didn’t get it just right this year, but got a consolation nice shot of the female – (Cardinalis cardinalis)

In the winter, there’s often 10-12 cardinals here at once, but I can’t seem to get a group shot that’s worth a damn…so here’s a male portrait from quite a few years ago – next to the holly tree…

layout

Took my time and got it right. What I have to watch for is the back slats. I have a bad habit of laying them out on the wrong edge - the layout on the ends are mirror images. It is very easy for me to wander out into La La Land doing it. However, I haven't had chopping out brain fart for quite some time. I have caught my layout me-steaks by double, triple checking myself.

left or right end?????

It is self supporting but I was working on getting the front end of the dado gap free. Noticed that my walls weren't dead on plumb and it was keeping it from being gap free.

bit of a gap

This is the end panel where the dado wall wasn't plumb. It took me a few chisel/trim and checks before it closed up. I was shooting for it to be gap free with hand pressure but that didn't happen. It easily slammed shut with clamp pressure.

helping hand

I try to avoid using these clamps because they are a ROYAL PITA. I have problems with tightening  them fully before running out of screw length. However, for this application they are a perfect fit due to the clamp head staying parallel to the clamp bar. And they closed the gap nicely.

first back slats fitted

Happy with how well this fit. I laid out the notches a wee bit undersized so I would get a snug fit. I was shooting for a seamless fit between the slats and the notches. I didn't want to do shouldered tenons - I like this look more.

the left one

Three of the slats fit snug/tight and this one is kind of snug. It is self supporting but it is looser than its siblings. I think it will be ok and I expect the glue will swell the joint tight.

dry fit

Happy with this and especially so with the fit with no hiccups to rant about.

view from the back

Thinking of leaving the ends as is and making the top parallel to the bottom. Initially I was going to do them like the pine bookshelves but I came to a fork in the road.

hmm.....

I was going to round the two outside corners on the shelf but I changed lanes again. I like the look of the corners clipped more than them being rounded. I was going to round them because I did the tops of the ends like the pine bookshelves. 

glued and cooking

I didn't forget to drill holes first for the Miller dowels. Been running through the brain bucket whether to use cherry or walnut dowels? I had to swap clamps because I couldn't get the Besseys to close the gaps at the front. Used a 24" bar clamp to do the job.

look at what I found

Came across these and I had totally forgotten I had it. 90 degree drilling guide for flat and round stock. 6 bushings, three imperial 1/8", 3/16", and 1/4". Three metric at 3mm, 5mm, and 8mm. It is something I could have used recently. Since I had time on the clock before the quitting bell rang, decided to whack out a box to keep it in.

still kicking my arse

I have had this circle cutting jig for 40 years.  For years it has made me feel like my IQ isn't in double digits. I still haven't figured out how to orient the cutter in the arm. But the biggie is determining the diameter of the circle. There is a scale on the arm and I set it for a 2 1/2" diameter circle and I ended up with one a little over 2 3/4".

first hole

The empty part matches the diameter of the guide spot on but the overall diameter of the hole is a 1/4" too much. On the 2nd attempt, I got a burned out hole. The insult was it was too small. 

hmm......

I drilled this one coming from both sides, and both sides burned equally bad.

heebie jeebies setup

I'll be doing the next hole drilling differently. I will use an oversized board (length wise) with that one. I am also contemplating using a 2 1/2" diameter hole saw. I have a 2 1/4" and a 2 3/4", sigh. But that depends upon the cost. If it is too much I'll expend the calories and figure out how the circle cutter jig works once and for all. If that doesn't happen free flying lessons might be in its future.

accidental woodworker